Fire and Ice
by Canadino
Summary: Some say the world will end in fire, some say it will end in ice...


**Disclaimer: If Shaman King were mine, I wouldn't need to write fanfics. If any of these songs were mine, I wouldn't be writing fanfics.**

Background music: Masochist – Ingrid Michaelson

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,  
Some say in ice.

The world will end eventually. Maybe not the Earth itself will self destruct, if it doesn't do so from global warming or rising gas prices. But one thing is for sure: the sun will eventually burn out. It will not happen tomorrow, or a year from now, or even a century from now. But it will eventually. And when it does, what will happen to humans? The sun is a star, and when a star dies, it explodes in a flash of light and gas. Should the impact distance reach Earth, we might catch flame and burn up. We will go down in flames.

Or maybe the sun's explosion falls short of Earth. We will be saved from a fiery doom, but without a strong beacon of light and warmth, another ice age shall fall upon us. And with no sun or salvation, we will eventually freeze.

From what I've tasted of desire  
I hold with those who favor fire.

Asakura Hao just wants something: revenge and salvation. Revenge against the humans who killed his mother just because she was a shaman. Salvation from the burning desire of revenge. It's a lose-lose situation: he knows he must kill to fill the emptiness inside, but if he does, there is no hope of salvation. It has nothing to do with the stupid X-Laws motto; he knows inside that he has no hope left.

So he does what he knows best: burn and destroy. Maybe he can outrun his fate. If he disfigures destiny enough, it won't notice him. Maybe somehow, the fulfillment he's been looking for will come.

You would have thought that one who has lived two lives already might have found happiness. But not Hao. Happiness seems only like a dream, like ones he has as he dozes off during the day, seeing his mother smiling at him for the last time…

His life had ended the day they set his house on fire, but he feels the need to surround himself with it. It destroyed 'evil'…maybe it would destroy _them_.

He hadn't been expecting to be duplicated twice this time, though…he'd never really considered himself having family before…his biological parents last time had been forsaken and he'd never even known them. But this time, he had a brother. Yoh.

Yoh was such a peculiar person. He'd thought that someone who was from the same soul would be similar, but Yoh wasn't…he was…a kindred spirit. A part of the Asakura that had found peace.

That was so strange. Yoh was a part of him, and he had found peace. He decided he'd have to claim his peace back, Hao decided. After all, it was rightfully his.

Maybe he would finally feel at peace after all these years.

But no. Yoh resisted. He resisted along with his group of little heroes. It was hard to touch Yoh, let alone skim the surface of his serenity. First guarding the peace was Anna…she reminded him of his mother, she did. Hao had considered her once, but she had already sided herself with Yoh. With the 'enemy' that refused to give up what he had and what Hao wanted.

Ren and Horo were strong, he'd give them that. They were 'heroes' in their own eyes. Such a stupid, fake title. Heroes didn't exist. They never did. They were childish stories that let little children sleep at night.

Chocolove was a different story. But he'd been through hell and had an agenda of his own. Untouchable in his own determination to one goal.

But there was one in Yoh's band of 'heroes' that held the great Asakura Hao's attention. Lyserg Diethyl was special…extremely special, in fact. He had sided himself with the 'heroes' in the beginning, but he didn't actually root for the heroes. He considered himself with Yoh, but would easily abandon his brother if case came. An antihero of sorts. But still good in mind and body.

"I hate you, Hao. You should have expected this after you killed my family."

Didn't he understand that he, Hao, was also after revenge for the same thing? The only fire that burned in his heart was of revenge. He wanted it, he needed it.

But if it had to perish twice,  
I think I know enough of hate

Fire burns. It consumes and destroys, leaving ashes and tears in its wake. If it is too out of control, fire cannot be finished with water. It must be smoked out with more fire. Ice would definitely melt under the heat of a scorching fire.

But that is not the case with Lyserg. From the fire that destroyed him, he has been encased in cold, hard ice. The hatred that consumes him does so slowly, eating away slowly at the very fibers of his being. He knows that if he gives in, he will eventually be destroyed by himself. The pressure of hate will eventually be too much and he will fall.

He has been killing himself slowly since the beginning. He's trapped himself in the middle of a frozen moat, untouchable by any other force as he slowly spins a cocoon of ice in the middle. Encasing him in cold, watching others as he waits for his own destruction.

Yoh tried. Yoh tried to help him. He called for him from the shore. For a few moments, Lyserg had considered stopping to join the friendly face, but a cold white wind that scattered white feathers whispered in his ear that it was wrong. He already had a mindset, and to throw that away would be throwing away his life, wasn't it? What were you thinking?

So Lyserg continued the slow, painful job of sewing himself up in ice.

And still, Yoh tried. He tried to cross the moat to get to him. Despite falls and slips, Yoh pushed forward, keen on saving Lyserg from an icy fate.

Lyserg was captivated for a moment. Someone actually cared enough to try and cross the moat? Impossible, right? He stopped for a while to watch and ponder this, and even let Yoh closer. Yoh had reached out to him.

An avalanche cannot be stopped. Weakness is easily eradicated from the world with natural selection. Lyserg set up a fortress of icicles around him, blunt enough as not to hurt, but sharp enough to make his point. Yoh stood on the outskirts, still calling for him. But he turned a deaf ear to these pleas and continued his ice.

Why did people ask him why he put himself in a situation like this? What kind of question was that?

He was preparing himself to face Hao. To put so much ice around him that when the flames leapt up to meet him, he'd have layers of protection from it. He was confident that he would be able to defeat his demons before his many layers of ice melted.

If he didn't…he tried. He tried so hard.

He hadn't been expecting the demon to swoop out of the sky to claim him, though. To burn the moat until the ice that covered it melted, plunging the icicles into the deep dark abyss. Yoh was no where to be found, although there were orange headphones floating on top of the black water, dirty and soon to be swallowed by the moat. The ice cocoon wasn't strong enough; Lyserg sustained numerous burns.

He thought his hate would be able to make him stronger than this.

To say that for destruction ice  
Is also great  
And would suffice.

Fiery passion coupled with frigid hate. A star burns out a few light years away. Glaciers at the poles melt slowly, the water sliding off their smooth sides. Why do you use such destruction to heal yourselves?

You ask too many questions. Leave me alone.

Asakura Hao tastes ashes in his mouth as he sits up from the bed. Bitter ashes whose taste cannot be washed away with water, water from the melted ice. But still he tries, tries to wash it away, to find his hope in the hopeless.

Lyserg Diethyl is covered with water. His ice cocoon has failed him and he is steadily drowning in the black water, black like ashes. Drowning in ashes, drowning in fire. He lies next to him, eyes closed, as if the fact that he can't see _him_ will erase the pain, the awful constricting pain of drowning.

Love burns hotter and faster than the worst fire. It will melt even the most stubborn and unyielding freeze. There is no love here.

But despite what Hao thinks, he and Yoh are not as different as he thinks. He has hope, but it feels unpure and indecent, like what he does, who he does. But it is still hope, and even a flicker of hope can give even the weariest soul a chance at becoming what it desires.

Maybe this is what it is meant to be, Lyserg thinks tiredly, as he slowly opens his eyes. The sun's rays are faint in this dark room, but the silhouette is next to him. Maybe this is how it's supposed to be.

Cause that's how it's supposed to be, right?

Owari

Note: Just me and some fun with Robert Frost poems. Inspired from another fanfic about the same pairing using 'Desert Places'. I believe it's called 'the one' but I don't remember the author. Strange little emo fic, I have to admit. Review, thanks!

TWENTIETH FANFIC! WHOA!


End file.
